A friend of mine recently posed an interesting question. He asked, “Assuming that drugs were legalized… what would you suggest is my right if a drug dealer moves in next door? What are my rights when it comes to protecting my property and my children?” I was in the process of replying when I realized …
Joe Biden’s false equivalence
In a statement released by Vice President Joe Biden a few days ago for the “International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia” (apparently that’s a thing), he addressed issues facing the LGBT community. His short statement was not policy-heavy and was based primarily on the notion “that everyone, everywhere is entitled to be treated with dignity …
Why I am a libertarian
Note: A libertarian (with a small “l”) is not the same as a Libertarian (with a capital “L”) because the former is a philosophical designation while the latter references membership in a political party. I am a libertarian because I oppose the initiation of force and because I believe in liberty, autonomy, and the non-aggression …
Poverty versus Prosperity
No amount of government spending will ever “eliminate poverty” because poverty is not actually caused by a lack of money; it’s caused by a lack of ambition and productivity. There are some exceptions, of course, but in the vast majority of cases, poverty is a choice. I’m not discounting the often significant obstacles which can …
In Defense of Anarcho-Reformism
As much as I tend to agree with Voluntaryists on most issues, the one area I have trouble with is their insistence that total abstention from politics is the only moral (and philosophically consistent) position. I believe that one can recognize that government is an unnecessary evil and still work within the system to make …
Someone, not Santa, is always watching
A paper recently published by a professor in Canada suggests that the popular “Elf on the Shelf” game is conditioning children to accept the surveillance state. The notion of the Elf on the Shelf is that a small elf doll is actually a scout elf who reports nightly to Santa Claus on the activities that …